by which it was originally determined. But
better than that; if it were required to
recover immediately the lost unit of measurement,
it would not be necessary to recommence
so laborious an operation as the
measurement of a notable portion of the
quadrant of the meridian, which occupied
several years to complete perfectly; because,
after once that unit has been determined, it is
possible, with the aid of natural physics, to
reproduce it as often as you want by a
prompt and easy method, which will furnish
you with an exact copy of the original.
Space allows me to say no more than, that
the oscillations of a pendulum supply the
means. By a law of nature, every pendulum
of a given length oscillates, at the same latitude
and elevation from the sea, in the same
given time; consequently, knowing that a
metre pendulum completes its oscillation in
such a time (very nearly a second), supposing
the mètre to be unfortunately lost, or utterly
falsified , you have only to make a pendulum
oscillate in that exact time (or to make a
given number of oscillations in twenty-four
hours), to regain your missing mètre, and to
compel the absentee M. T. R. (as per Times'
advertisement), to return without delay to
his sorrowing friends, when all will be
arranged for the best, and no reproaches or
scoldings given.

For these reasons,I humbly state my
opinion, that more good is likely to arise to
neighbouring countries from the international
adoption of uniform measures and
weights, than from any assimilation of their
current coin. The quadrant of the meridian,
and the weight of water at the freezing point,
are the same for all the nations of the world;
but the prosperity, the credit, the debts, the
exports and imports, the demand and supply
of each individual nation, have always varied,
and always will.It does really seem,on close
consideration,that national moneys of account
and coinage,co-existing with uniform,
international,and universally received weights and
measures,form the system most in accordance
with things as they are at the present epoch of
the human race; and are,therefore,a more
natural arrangement ,and more likely to work
well in the long run than the equalisation of
moneys also.

The French mètre is divided into ten parts,
called decimètres;but decimètres,like
décimes,are seldom spoken of in every-day
language.The décimètre is divided into ten
centimètres,and the centimètre into ten
millimètres,the hundredth and thousandth
parts of a mètre respectively. These are
found to answer conveniently and accurately
for all purposes of small measurement. Note
well,that the divisions of the mètre (as of all
weights,measures and coins in France) are
expressed by numerals derived from the
Greek: thus,a kilomètre is a thousand
mètres,and answers the purpose of our
mile (than wich it is considerably shorter)
in the measurement of French roads. Four
kilomètres make a French league, which may
be called two and a half English miles. It
cannot be denied that the mètre, with its
multiples and subdivisions, offers a simple
and natural means of measuring length,
against the naturalisation of which in Great
Britain, and elsewhere, no other objection
can be urged, than the violence it would offer
to established customs, modes of speech, and
money-charges.

The clever Commercial Traveller, whom
we have already cited, despairs of reconciling
the inconsistencies accumulated by ages in
the department of lineal measures. He
confesses that, owing to the relation of the foot,
or the yard, to the mile, the equatorial degree
—all conventional measures, remember, and
therefore open to modification—and to
astronomical and nautical calculations, the settlement
of this question is perhaps the most
perplexing of all. He doubtingly proposes
the adoption, as the unit, of the present foot,
and the introduction of a new rod, the decimal
multiple of the foot: for, if the yard be
retained and decimalised, we lose the inch, and
very likely also the foot. In short, he tries
to untie the Gordian knot, and cannot; yards,
perches, fathoms, chains, ells, and furlongs,
are intertwined so inextricably as to render
the feat impossible. I say, " Cut the knot at
once; throw away the yard measure, and
seize the mètre." From it every other
measure may be deduced with equal accuracy
and fixedness. Thus, in France, the litre,
which is no more than a cubic décimètre, is
the element of all liquid measures, and of all
other measures of capacity. There is no
reason (except the love of confusion,
complexity, and consequent difficulty, in which
certain persons find their account) why goods
that are to be measured by capacity—whether
liquids,as beer; or dry,as seeds—should not
be meted by the same measures. There are
very many reasons why they they should. Again,
—to show the general applicability of the
fundamantal mètre- the gramme,the unit or
element of all weights,is the weight of a
cubic centimètre of distilled water, weighed
in vacuo,at the temperature of melting ice,
its point of greatest condensation. A thousand
of these make a kilogramme, less than two
and a quarter English pounds. On the
first publication of the republican weights
and measures, as they were called by the
commission appointed by the National
Convention, cadil was the name given to the
unit of capacity; and grave (from the Latin)
to the unit of weight and its subdivisions,
changing to bar (from the Greek) for the
multiples; but their respective values were
exactly the same as those of the litre and the
gramme, by which they have nominally been
replaced. These indefatigable servants of all
work, the mètre with its progeny, have even
been made to turn their hands to the coinage.
Twenty-seven five-franc pieces, laid touching